Tag: Doctoral Students

Grantham Institute Climate Research Showcase 2026 (submission deadline: 04 Feb)

The Grantham Institute’s Climate Research Showcase returns on Wednesday 4 March 2026, bringing together Imperial’s world-leading climate research and innovation community to exchange ideas, foster collaboration and accelerate action on climate.

Submissions are now open to take part in the Showcase!

Present your research poster, host a participatory workshop and connect with climate experts from across college working to advance multidisciplinary science and solutions.

Find out more about how to take part and register to attend here.

 

Mindful Scientific Writing workshop (21 Jan 2026)

Feeling stressed about writing?
Finding it hard to focus?
Interruptions and deadlines getting in the way?

You’re not alone!

Writing is the currency of academia. It is how we communicate ideas, secure funding, build careers, and create impact. Yet, for most researchers, writing can seem like a side task – unintuitive, draining, and something that’s often pushed to the bottom of the list. It is rarely taught as a skill to be practiced mindfully or sustainably; more often it’s something we dread, delay, or approach under stress. This can lead to burnout, reduced productivity, and poor mental health.

This workshop aims to change that narrative. Designed for all Early Career Researchers at Imperial College London, the Mindful Scientific Writing Workshop will offer practical strategies for building a sustainable writing practice rooted in focus, self-compassion, and clarity.

Participants will learn how to manage time, energy, and cognitive load while still making tangible progress on their most important writing projects without sacrificing their well-being.

The workshop will combine a 1-hour live-streamed ‘Mindful scientific writing and productivity for scientists’ session by the wonderful Ana Pineda (ifocusandwrite.com) with a 2-hour group writing session to reflect, plan, and work on your own writing without distraction.

Wednesday, 21st January 2026
Workshop: 13:00-14:00 PM
Writing Club: 14:00 – 16:00 PM

Join us in-person or online

Silwood Park, Hamilton Birch/Oak
South Kensington, TBC

Link: DoLS Write Club | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams

If you have any questions, please contact Vivienne – vgroner@ic.ac.uk

The workshop is supported by ECR Community Fund.

LERU Doctoral Summer School | 06 – 11 September 2026 (apply by 16 Jan)

Inter-, Multi- and Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Health
KU Leuven University | 6 – 11 September 2026 

Application deadline: Friday 16 January 2026 @ 11:00 UTC

The LERU Doctoral Summer School at KU Leuven seeks to foster increased cooperation in research on health across all academic disciplines and in tandem with extra-academic partners. The timing is fortunate, since 2026 also sees the opening of Leuven’s new Vesalius Museum of science, healthcare and society. Participants in the Summer School will be invited to join in pre-opening trial runs of the permanent exhibition and share their critical assessments in dedicated sessions of the Summer School programme.  

Andreas Vesalius is an ideal patron scientist for a new generation of doctoral researchers from all disciplines of LERU’s comprehensive universities. Some 500 years ago, he entered Leuven University where he studied Arts before switching to Medicine in Paris five years later. Returning to Leuven, he defended his doctoral dissertation on the 10th -century Persian physician and polymath Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, and a few years later, having moved to Basel, made his lasting mark with the publication of the groundbreaking work on human anatomy De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543). As a physician and humanist who collaborated with artists, Andreas Vesalius exemplifies the value of multidisciplinary knowledge-making. His life and work offer an inspiring frame for addressing fundamental questions about life, health, science and scholarship today.  

The LERU Doctoral Summer School 2026 welcomes participants from all disciplines whose research focusses principally on health broadly conceived or promises to lend itself to extension to health research. Day One features expert surveys on inter-, multi- and transdisciplinary health research and on research-based public engagement initiatives on health, as well as a presentation of the Vesalius Museum, whose permanent exhibition will serve to loosely structure the Summer School programme. Days Two, Three and Four feature morning sessions by leading health researchers and afternoon sessions devoted to museum testings and group project work facilitated by local experts. On the final day, groups finalise their presentations and share their projects with university leaders, academics and guests.  

During lunch breaks, there will be poster sessions on LERU Health Institutes and Young Researchers’ Careers Initiatives.  

We aim for a course that corresponds to approximately 5 ECTS. 

Please review the course advert for the preliminary timetable and further details.  

Costs and course format 

The registration fee for the programme is €600, which will cover materials, catering and accommodation during the programme.   

Imperial will provide funding of £1000 towards the costs of participation for the nominated student. This includes the registration fee (€600) and a contribution towards travel (up to £450 can be claimed for return flights/train travel from London to Leuven and visa costs). Participants will be expected to cover any costs above £1000.  

This course will be delivered on-site at KEU Leuven in Belgium. Participants should take the entry requirements into account, including vaccination requirements and visas, when arranging travel to Belgium.  

 Application information 

Imperial has one guaranteed place on the summer school. 

As part of the application, you will be asked to provide a statement of motivation (maximum 500 words). The selected candidate will later be asked to provide a statement of motivation and up-to-date CV which will be shared with LERU.  

Who can apply? 

The summer school is for intermediate to advanced doctoral candidates in all fields of academia. Doctoral students who are at a later stage of their PhD will benefit from the learning environment that challenges their thinking into new directions through cross-disciplinary perspectives. Candidates should be highly motivated to work intensively on this project in an international and interdisciplinary team. All sessions will be conducted in English. 

Imperial College participants must: 

  • Be a current doctoral student (from any discipline)  
  • Be more than 18 months into their PhD at the time the course takes place 
  • Be available for the entire duration of the Summer School, and must be prepared to take part in all activities 
  • Be willing to prepare by completing any preparatory readings prior to the course  

Successful applicants will: 

  • Be strongly motivated to engage with the programme theme of ‘Inter-, Multi- and Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Health’.  
  • Be able to explain what they hope to gain from the experience 
  • Be keen to connect with fellow doctoral students in international and multidisciplinary group work 
  • Be willing to communicate their experiences to peers and colleagues at Imperial afterwards 
  • Be able to demonstrate an interest in building international networks 
  • Be willing to be a good ambassador for Imperial 

How to apply? 

Applications are now open via the online Application Form.  

Application deadline EXTENDED to Friday 16 January 2026, 11am UTC.    

Any additional queries, please contact: irop@imperial.ac.uk  

Please note that it is not possible to provide feedback on individual applications.  

New Work and Professional Experiences Webpage

Keen to secure professional experience this winter break?

Our new Work and professional experiences webpage is the perfect place to explore all the ways you can get hands-on experience while studying from internships and part time work to shadowing and volunteering

Learn about different types of experiences, how to prepare for work experience, and where you can find opportunities here.

NetDRIVE Summer Schools

Two fully-funded NetDRIVE summer schools for PhD students, focused around Net-Zero and responsible research when using Digital Research Infrastructure. These will be during the summer of 2026, and spring of 2027.

If you would like to be notified when the application form goes live, please enter your details here.

To apply for a place on the 2026 summer school, please use this form

More details at https://durham.readthedocs.io/en/latest/netdrive/index.html.

Take part in the UK Reproducibility Network’s Open Research Survey!

Dear colleagues

I am Imperial College London’s Local Network Lead (LNL) for the UK Reproducibility Network, and I would like to invite you to complete a short survey to identify current awareness and use of Open Research practices. This will take less than 5 minutes.

This survey is being conducted along with LNLs across the country to identify areas for initiatives and training across UK institutions. To take part, you can be a researcher in any discipline or career stage, including academic staff, research staff and doctoral students. We would like to hear from any researcher, even if you are completely unaware of Open Research/Open Science – this is intended to help us identify where there are gaps in knowledge.

Click here to take part in the survey

The study has received approval from the Brunel Research Ethics Office (30088-A-Jan/2025- 53666-1), and all responses will be anonymous and confidential.

Thank you in advance for taking part.

To discuss how you can embed Open Research into your research in a meaningful way – to address challenges like the reproducibility crisis, publication bias, research waste and publish-or-perish culture – get in touch with me via the details in my signature.

Best wishes

Hamid

Dr Hamid Khan

Open Research Manager, Imperial College London

Local Network Lead, UK Reproducibility Network

 

Library Services

Imperial College London

South Kensington Campus

Abdus Salam Library

London SW7 2AZ

E  hamid.khan@imperial.ac.uk

Department of Mechanical Engineering Research Showcase (11 Feb 2026)

The Department of Mechanical Engineering Research Showcase 2026 is taking place on 11 February and the guest speaker will be Alan Newby, Director of Research & Technology at Rolls-Royce plc.

Schedule

15:00 – Lecture Theatre 200, City & Guilds Building: Mechanical Engineering research topics

Talks to be given by Mechanical Engineering staff:

  • Dr Sina Stapelfeldt- “Aeroelastic phenomena in aircraft engines“
  • Dr Paul Hooper– “From data deluge to actionable insights: Enabling Real-Time Quality Assurance in Metal Additive Manufacturing”
  • Dr Matt Eaton– “Nuclear future”

16:00 – Level 2 Concourse, City & Guilds Building : Tea/Coffee and Poster presentations

17:30 – CAGB LT 200: Invited lecture with Alan Newby

18:00 – CAGB Level 2 Concourse: Refreshments

Find out more & Register

New Doctoral Theses: access and alerts

Looking for Imperial theses? Explore and download theses via the Library’s guide:

Stay updated with Spiral

  • Imperial users can subscribe to collections (e.g., departmental PhD theses) and receive daily, weekly, or monthly digests of newly added items.
  • Log in with College credentials to subscribe.
  • External users can follow updates via RSS for the same collections.

How to subscribe (Imperial users)

  1. Go to Spiral: https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk
  2. Open the collection you want to follow (e.g., “Physics PhD theses”).
  3. Click “Subscribe” and choose your preferred frequency.
  4. Manage your preferences here: https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/subscriptions

Introducing dAIsy – Imperial’s New GenAI workspace

dAIsy is Imperial’s new Generative AI platform, designed to give you safe, easy access to multiple AI models (such as GPT, Claude, Deepseek, and others) through a single interface.

dAIsy is built to support teaching, learning, and research while ensuring data protection and institutional compliance.

Why use dAIsy?

  • Private and secure – your data stays protected. All your prompts and chat history are stored securely in Imperial’s cloud.
  • Build your own agents – You can define instructions or behaviours suited to your specific needs.
  • Advanced developer role available on request – if you want to go deeper.

Imperial offers licensed AI models to promote equitable access and, alongside Microsoft Copilot, dAIsy supports our commitment to harnessing AI’s transformative potential responsibly and effectively.

Further support

Join a new PhD Participatory Research Network!

A group of PhD students has set up a PhD Participatory Research Network (funded by LISS-DTP) to connect PhD students interested in participatory methods – approaches where people with lived experience are active partners in shaping all stages of the research process. Each month, we’ll meet to explore a different theme through interactive workshops, peer discussions, and guest speakers. Together, we’ll build a collective toolkit of resources and guidance by PhD students, for PhD students.

Our first session will be held at REACH Space, 3rd Floor, Surrey Street East Wing, Strand Campus, King’s College London, on Wednesday 5th November, 2pm-4pm. Our network is open to all PhD students from King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London, and Imperial College London. If you are based elsewhere but would like to join, please email Emma (e.hayashibara@qmul.ac.uk). As spaces are limited, please register your interest via Eventbrite to secure your place. If you can no longer attend, kindly cancel your registration so that someone else can take your spot.

For any questions about the network, feel free to contact Emma (e.hayashibara@qmul.ac.uk).